Evaluating Gant Project, Orange Scrum, and ProjeQtOr Open

Source Project Management Tools using QSOS

Catarina Romão Proença

and Jorge Bernardino

1,2 b

Polytechnic of Coimbra – ISEC, Rua Pedro Nunes, Quinta da Nora, 3030-199 Coimbra, Portugal

CISUC - Centre of Informatics and Systems of University of Coimbra, Pinhal de Marrocos, 3030-290 Coimbra, Portugal

Keywords: Open Source Software, Project Management Tools, Qualification and Selection of Open Source Software,

Assessment Methodologies, Gantt Project, Orange Scrum, ProjeQtOr.

Abstract: The task of managing a software project is an extremely complex job, drawing on many personal, team, and

organizational resources. We realized that exist many project management tools and software being developed

every day to help managers to automate the administration of individual projects or groups of projects during

their life-cycle. Therefore, it is important to identify the software functionalities and compare them to the

intended requirements of the company, to select which software complements the expectations. This paper

presents a comparison between three of the most popular open source project management tools: Gantt Project,

OrangeScrum, ProjeQtOr. To assess these project management tools is used the Qualification and Selection

Open Source (QSOS) methodology.

1 INTRODUCTION

Managing projects involving different groups of

people and complex tasks can be challenging. The

solution is to use project management software,

which allows more efficient management of projects.

Today, there is a large amount of available project

management tools that try to improve project

management by organizing all the necessary

information. According to Capers Jones (Jones,

2004), in complex software projects, successful

project planning highly utilizes automated project

planning tools. Hence, it becomes important for

project owners or managers to choose the most

appropriate tool for their project management needs.

In this paper, we evaluate only open source

alternatives, because there are a vast number of tools

that provide similar features and can compete with

proprietary software. The quality of Open Source

Software products is affected by many variables and

it varies strongly in different products, so is important

to have a structured set of criteria to use to assess the

quality of these projects (Adão and Bernardino, 2013).

Since the open source field has a very broad scope, it

is necessary to use a qualification method that

https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0382-9802

https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9660-2011

differentiates between numerous candidates to meet

technical, functional and strategic requirements. For

such we apply the Qualification and Selection Open

Source (QSOS) methodology to the open source

project management tools. The QSOS methodology

describes a formal process to evaluate, compare and

select open source solutions.

The contribution of this paper is to evaluate three

Open Source Project Management Tools: Gantt

Project, Orange Scrum, and ProjeQtOr, determining

which tool has the best score according to the criteria

establish in the methodology. This choice was

supported on our research and tools popularity based

on the number of publications that mention that

software (SourceForge, 2015).

The rest of this paper is organized as follows.

Section 2 describes the three open source tools that

will be evaluated. Section 3 presents a synthesis and

the respective application of each step of the

methodology QSOS at the three open source tools.

Finally, Section 4 presents the conclusions and future

work.

522

Proença, C. and Bernardino, J.

Evaluating Gant Project, Orange Scrum, and ProjeQtOr Open Source Project Management Tools using QSOS.

DOI: 10.5220/0007956605220528

In Proceedings of the 14th International Conference on Software Technologies (ICSOFT 2019), pages 522-528

ISBN: 978-989-758-379-7

 2019 by SCITEPRESS – Science and Technology Publications, Lda. All r ights reserved

2 OPEN SOURCE PROJECT

MANAGEMENT TOOLS

Project Management refers to the planning,

monitoring and controlling of all aspects of a project,

with the people involved in the project aiming to

achieve the objectives on time and on a budget to a

specific quality standard (Margea and Margea, 2011).

There is a variety of project management

alternatives that provide many useful features during

project development, starting from time and task

tracking (scheduling) and up to cost and resource

management (Abramova, Pires and Bernardino,

2016).

In this work, we have selected and studied three

of the most popular Open Source Project

Management Tools. The search was made in several

documents like (Blazevic, 2012), (SourceForge,

2015), (Burger, 2017), (13 best free project

management software programs 2016 _ Techworld,

no date) and others. And the results of the search were

Gantt Project, Orange Scrum and ProjeQtOr because

all present important and necessary features for a

project of information systems and also have good

documentation to help and support the users.

In the next sections, we describe the main

characteristics of three open source management

tools, as well as its advantages and limitations.

2.1 Gantt Project

Gantt Project (https://www.ganttproject.biz/) was

founded in January of 2013 and is a project

management software ideal for small business. It is

open source and freely available on SourceForge.

Gantt Project is written in Java and it´s compatible

with Windows, OSX, and Linux operating systems.

It provides a variety of tools to manage staff and

keep track of projects like Gantt’s free project

scheduling and management software. Can be used to

define milestones and generate breakdowns of work

and arrange them in chart format to be easier to

understand visually. These charts can then be

exported in various file formats such as PNG images,

PDF files, and HTML files. It is compatible with

Microsoft Project and allows to create Gantt Charts,

which include Work Breakdown Structure,

dependencies, and defining milestones.

It also allows assign human resources to tasks and

creates PERT charts. In addition, there’s WebDAV

support which helps share projects directly with

others (Margea and Margea, 2011).

Its features are Task hierarchy and dependencies;

Gantt chart; Milestone tracking; Project planning;

Task management; Resource load chart; Generation

of PERT chart; PDF and HTML reports; MS Project

import/export; Exchange data with spreadsheet

applications; WebDAV based group work.

Advantages: allows to visualize projects in a graphic

way; can work offline on the desktop; set goals to

improvement; can assign human resources to work on

each task; includes PERT and Gantt charts.

Weaknesses: can´t show the critical path; can’t

measure task duration in hours (only days); doesn't

present Scrum and Kanban support.

Gantt project has a work breakdown structure,

where is possible organize all tasks in one place and

create a hierarchy tree to summarize and track dates,

costs, progress, and all the lower level information

that must be handled when there is a task in the works.

Allows a better-organized project and make sure that

all the essential tasks are easy to see.

Figure 1 shows the interface of Gantt Project.

Figure 1: Interface Gantt Project. (Source: https://www.

capterra.com/p/136586/GanttProject/).

2.2 Orange Scrum

Orange Scrum (https://www.orangescrum.org/) is an

open source tool engineered to manage and delegate

tasks, communicate and collaborate on projects and

track costs for smaller organizations – freelancers,

agencies and small and midsize business.

Orange Scrum Community was established in

2014. It is written in Cake PHP and is compatible

with Windows, OSX, and Linux operating systems.

This tool provides professional advice for project

management requirements. Also includes improving

user experience, integrating projects, business

automation, collaborative management, enterprise

solutions for business and deep-dive business

analysis.

Gantt charts are provided with the software to

define the logical sequence of tasks and dependencies,

with a view of milestones to map assignments. The

time and resource management tool allow users to

view an entire team's availability to task assignments,

Evaluating Gant Project, Orange Scrum, and ProjeQtOr Open Source Project Management Tools using QSOS

523

long spend time against tasks and monitor the time

taken on each task.

OrangeScrum's dashboard is interactive with

projects metrics such as budget, timelines, and

resource utilization in real time. The intuitive chart

view shows an entire day's progress in a quick card

view while being able to gain insights to progress on

projects.

Its features are: Interactive summary of projects,

Visual representation, All in one screen, Task

management, Project planning, Gantt charts,

Collaboration, Time tracking, Resource management,

Schedule management, Kanban view.

Advantages: include a mobile app; progress

tracking; real-time updates; installation guide and

email; Skype, and phone support; and we can access

to a global forum and documentation to solve

problems or doubts.

Weaknesses: some resources are paid, confusing for

first time users; doesn't have PERT or Gantt charts;

and can't show critical path management.

This tool simplifies the way project managers

handle all aspects of their projects, from managing

and delegating tasks, empowering team members to

communicate and collaborate with each other,

assigning the right resources to the right people and

purpose, ensuring that budget is strictly implemented.

By combining project management, collaboration,

and task management into a centralized platform.

Figure 2 shows the interface of Orange Scrum.

Figure 2: Interface Orange Scrum. (Source: https://www.

orangescrum.org/).

2.3 ProjeQtOr

ProjeQtOr (https://www.projeqtor.org/en/) was

founded in June of 2009 and is an open source project

management software initially developed by Pascal

Bernard.

It is a Web-based tool, very easy to use, which

include every feature needed to the management of

projects, such as: Management of tasks and

milestones; Management of work and teams; Incident

management; Multi-project management;

Implementation of resources in machines to be served

when necessary; Storage of all project documents in

an easily accessible space; Risk management;

Management of budgets and expenses; Collaborative

Web Architecture; Multi-platform (Windows and

Linux).

In addition to other features, the evidence is that it

is quality oriented, that is, it integrates best practices

to meet pre-established quality requirements. To

assure that, ProjeQtOr generates workflows,

indicators, issues alerts and reports. It also allows to

record all the events that occur during the project, and

thus simplify an indication with the main

management quality standards (ISSO, CMMI, ITIL,

etc).

Advantages: ProjeQtOr is completely free;

professional training and developing custom features;

the system is regularly updated; the community forum

is also very active and can provide plug-ins on special

needs.

Weaknesses: can´t show the critical path; confusing

for first time users; updates can be a problem; doesn't

have PERT charts.

ProjeQtOr is an open source management tool

completely free product and operational. It´s possible

to adapt ProjeQtOr if we stay within the license. The

version available for download is fully functional,

without limitations, and without needing to pay for a

premium license to access all the features.

Figure 3 shows the interface of ProjeQtOr.

Figure 3: Interface ProjeQtOr. (Source: https://sourceforge.

net/p/projectorria/wiki/Home/).

3 QSOS METHODOLOGY

The general approach of the QSOS Method is

composed of four interdependent steps (QSOS edoc

repository - Method of Qualification and Selection of

Open Source software (QSOS), no date): Define,

Evaluate, Qualify, and Select. The steps of the QSOS

method will be analyzed for the following tools:

Gantt Project, Orange Scrum, and ProjeQtOr.

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524

Figure 4 - General approach of QSOS. (Source: http://edoc.

qsos.org/en/qsos-2.0_en).

3.1 Step 1 – Define

This step defines different elements that will be used

during the next three steps of process. Through

research on websites was collecting information

about, the community responsible for the project, the

type and the license of the software and the location

to download. Each of this information is presented, in

Table 1.

Table 1: Information about the tools.

Softwar

Type of

softwar

Type of

Commu

nity

Type of

License

Website

Gantt

Project

manage

ment

software

Dmitry

Barashe

v and

others

GNU

GPL v3

www.ga

nttproje

ct.biz

Orange

Scrum

Project

manage

ment

software

Andolao

GNU

GPL v3

www.or

angescr

um.com

ProjeQt

Project

manage

ment

software

Pascal

Bernard

and

others

AGPL

www.pr

ojeqtor.

org

3.2 Step 2 – Evaluate

The purpose of this step is to evaluate free and open

source software. Information on the open source

community are retrieved to score the software based

on the criteria from the previous step. The evaluation

criteria of the maturity and functionality of the project

are imposed by the method and described further.

They are completed by criteria describing expected

features of the type of the evaluated software.

Functionality Criteria. Through research the

characteristics that we considered most relevant to the

project to be developed were selected, in this step,

these were evaluated as follows: (0) means that the

functionality is not present in the platform, (1) is

partially present, (2) is fully present. In Table 2 are

the Functionality criteria and the score. This

functionality criteria were chosen by us, according to

the main requirements of a software project.

Table 2: Functionality criteria and score.

Criteria

GanttProj

ect

OrangeScr

ProjeQtOr

Points Points Points

Hierarchica

l tasks

Yes

Milestone

tracking

Yes

Critical

path mgmt.

Yes

Gantt

charts

Yes

Time

tracking

Yes

Cost

tracking

Yes

Risk mgmt.

Yes

Of the features presented in Table 2, only one is

present in the three tools, the milestone tracking.

Hierarchical tasks and Critical path management are

present only in the Gantt Project. The ProjeQtOr have

Milestones tracking, Gantt charts, Time tracking,

Cost tracking, and risk management. The feature

present only on ProjeQtOr is risk management, that is

a support for identifying and keeping track of project

risks and risk-related activities.

Maturity Criteria. Each of the criteria determined

by the QSOS model was punctuated from the

information collected on the sites.

Table 3: Maturity criteria and score.

Criteria

GanttPro

ject

Orange

Scrum

ProjeQt

Points Points Points

Age of the project

Support

2 2

Popularity

1 1

Documentation

Updates and

versions new

The points were distributed according to the

information collected during the research. For

example, in the age of the project, the oldest is Gantt

project, therefore, was attributed 2 points. In support,

all have the maximum score because they offer

continuous support.

Evaluating Gant Project, Orange Scrum, and ProjeQtOr Open Source Project Management Tools using QSOS

525

As illustrated in Table 3, is possible to see that

ProjeQtOr and Gantt Project have the best scores for

maturity criteria. ProjeQtOr has a score of 2 in

Documentation, Support, Updates, and versions new,

this is an important mark because it gives users

confidence and aims for continuous improvement.

3.3 Step 3 – Qualify

This stage considers the context in which the software

will be used and the relevance of each of the criteria

in that context, so it is possible to assign a weighting

value for all the criteria.

Functionality Criteria. In this step, we must return

to the theoretical basis for verifying the importance of

each functionality criteria for the context under study,

so it is possible to attribute a weighting value for each

criterion. Being (0) when the criterion is not

necessary, (1) when it is optional and (3) when it is

essential to the presence on tools (it´s critical).

Table 4: Functionality criteria and respective weight.

Criteria Weight

Hierarchical tasks

Milestone tracking

Critical path management

Gantt charts

Time tracking

Cost tracking

Risk management

It was considered important to the study, the fact

to existing milestone tracking because indicates the

completion of major deliverables, normally by

completing a set of tasks. Gantt charts to visualize a

project´s tasks and milestone schedule. Time and cost

tracking for estimating and monitoring the time spent

on the project´s tasks and to monitor the expenses.

And in the last, the risk management to identifying

and keeping track of project risks and risk-related

activities.

Maturity Criteria. Each of the criteria is evaluated

by the institution according to its relevance to the

implementation and maintenance of the tool.

Table 5: Maturity criteria and respective weight.

Criteria Weight

Age of the project

Support

Popularity

Documentation

Updates and versions new

It can be considered that the criterion of the age of

the project, is not relevant for deployment since a

project maybe new, but it has consistency in the other

criteria, therefore this criterion received weight (0).

The criteria of Support and Documentation are

critical because they are the sources of information

that are consulted during the implementation process

and maintenance, therefore were given weight (3).

And Updates and new versions because show the

commitment of the project team to refine the tool

always looking for continuous improvement.

3.4 Step 4 - Select

The purpose of this step is to select the software

matching the user´s needs and choose which we will

use in our project.

With the information of the points and weights of the

criterion, it calculated the weighted average, which is

the sum of the multiplication (Weight x Point)

divided by the sum of the weights. In the following

Tables (6 and 7), the initial calculation is presented,

where the weights are multiplied by the points.

Table 6: Functionality criteria.

Criteria

Weig

GanttProj

ect

OrangeScr

ProjeQt

P W*P P W*P P

Hierarchi

cal tasks

1 2 2 0 0 0 0

Milest.

track.

3 2 6 2 6 2 6

Critical

path

mgmt.

1 2 2 0 0 0 0

Gantt

charts

3 2 6 0 0 2 6

Time

track.

3 0 0 2 6 2 6

Cost

track.

3 2 6 0 0 2 6

Risk

mgmt.

3 0 0 0 0 2 6

Table 7: Maturity criteria.

Criteria

igh

GanttProj

ect

OrangeSc

rum

ProjeQtO

Poi

nts

Poi

nts

Poi

nts

Age of the

project

0 2 0 1 0 1 0

Support

3 2 6 2 6 2 6

Popularity

1 2 2 1 2 1 2

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526

Table 7: Maturity criteria (Cont).

Documenta

tion

3 1 3 2 6 2 6

Updates /

new vers.

3 1 3 1 3 2 6

To complete the calculation of the weighted

average, we done the sum of the multiplication of the

weights and points (W*P) and the sum of the values

of the weights. Then the sum of the multiplication of

the weights and points are divided to the sum of the

values of the weights. As shown in Table 8.

Table 8: Weighted average result.

Criteria

GanttProject Orange ProjeQtOr

Avg Res. Avg Res. Avg Res.

Functio

nality

22/17

1.29

12/17

0.71

30/17

1.77

Maturity

14/10

1.4

17/10

1.7

20/10

To comprehend better the results of Table 8, we

present the bar chart in Figure 5.

Figure 5: Weight average chart.

As it is possible to realize in Figure 5, the tool that

most suits the study is the ProjeQtOr, such as

Functionality criteria as Maturity criteria. Has a score

in Functionality criteria as 1.77, while Gantt Project

occupies the second position with 1.29 and Orange

Scrum is the last with 0.71. In Maturity criteria

ProjeQtOr continued in first place with 2 of a score,

then OrangeScrum climbs up to second place with 1.7

and finally Gantt Project with 1.4.

This occurred because in functionality and

maturity criteria ProjeQtOr has the 3 criteria with

more weight and the others are missing some of that

or doesn´t have enough points in that criterion.

ProjeQtOr presents more punctuation in both

criteria, therefore, it was selected as the best open

source project management tool.

4 CONCLUSIONS AND FUTURE

WORK

The main objective of the research was to apply a

model for selecting a project management tool. As a

result, several procedures were used to build the

knowledge necessary to achieve the objective.

Starting with the theoretical foundation where it was

possible to deepen the knowledge in the area under

study.

This paper presented the four steps of the QSOS

model, which can be applied for qualification and

selection of free software of open code. The steps

have proved to be flexible and can be used for the

selection of any type of free software being only the

functionality criteria, which depending on the

software type.

The QSOS model was adapted for evaluation and

selection of project management tools, and each of its

four steps was presented and developed according to

the intended requirements. Being the first the

Definition of the chosen tools, followed by the

Evaluation stage where the criteria are scored, after

Qualification where the criteria are weighted,

concluding with the Selection stage where the

platforms are compared according to the weighted

average.

Each step of this model is important for qualifying

and select the tool, but you also need to have a clear

understanding of the importance of each functionality

criteria within the context of the research, only so it is

possible to weigh accurately resulting in a which can

be replicated in other studies.

In conclusion, the QSOS model used to select the

tool is efficient because it was possible to determine

the criteria necessary to evaluate the tools and

comparing them for project maturity and

functionalities important for the project. So is

possible to perceive that ProjeQtOr meets more

criteria and have higher scores in all studies

performed so, it is the best tool to be used in a project.

As future work, we intend to apply a greater

number of criteria that are relevant to the project and

to perceive the changes that will follow. One goal will

also be to keep the study updated according to the

future upgrades that will emerge in the tools and

developing a real case study scenario.

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